When my husband and I were renovating our current home that we bought for just under $10,000, one of the many areas that got gutted entirely and redone was the kitchen.
It was so much fun designing and picking out supplies for the kitchen. I, of course, kept things thrifty, but one area I felt would be worth the splurge would be getting a solid surface countertop.
I was willing to do tile so that my husband could install it, and we could save money on both supplies and labor. I first picked out a plain cream ceramic tile, perfectly functional and inexpensive but not really what I wanted. A day later, though, when we were once again in the hardware store, there was my dream tile, grey granite with white and black flecks. The best part, it was priced lower than the tile that I bought the day before that wasn’t granite, because there wasn’t enough left for a major project.
It took me all of 10 seconds to convince my husband to let me return yesterday’s so so tile find for that day’s fantastic find.
(For all our top tips on how to save money on household renovations read this post)
Years later, I still love it, but my husband, well, he likes the granite, but he hates his tile job. His skills have grown, and now he hates seeing where it is a bit uneven or not quite square. I tell him to stop fussing it is fine.
One thing I did notice very quickly about the granite, though, is that although it is hard-wearing in many ways, it does stain. I wanted something natural and inexpensive to take care of those stains with. After all, I didn’t want to spend as much on the cleaners over time as I did on the fantastic counter tile itself. Plus, a lot of cleaners trigger my headaches, not fun.
My Favorite DIY Granite Countertop Cleaner
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Somewhere on Pinterest, I am not sure where I found a pin where the blogger was using hydrogen peroxide to get stains out of her granite. I googled it to make sure that it was indeed safe to use on granite and found that several sources said that as long as you are using it no more than once or maximum twice a week to give your granite a good cleaning and remove stains. In between, you should clean your granite countertops with hot water and soap only.
I also found out that you should use no more than 12% strength hydrogen peroxide, any stronger and you could damage your granite.
I bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide for a whopping .60 cents at my local discount grocery store, placed it in a small spray bottle from the dollar store, and gave it a try. It did indeed get rid of the stains and left my granite countertops shining. I was hooked, and it has been my favorite DIY granite countertop cleaner ever since.
3 More Cleaning Tip Posts
- How To Get Rid Of Coffee & Tea Stains In Your Favorite Mugs: Naturally
- What Really Works OnMustard Stains
- 8 Must-Have Ingredients For Homemade Natural Cleaners
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That is really interesting! Years ago, I found a recipe that was 2-3 drops of dish detergent, 1/2 cup alcohol, and the rest of your bottle filled with water. I found that it worked really well and I’m wondering why I stopped using it and started buying the expensive bottles again! Thanks for the reminder.
Your welcome.
This really worked! I was a bit skeptical. I sprayed and let it sit 10 minutes and it removed most of the stain. I repeated the spray and it removed the rest! Thanks for the info!